State Board of Education approves Oregon plan for ESSA

After an extra month of fine-tuning, the State Board of Education approved Thursday Oregon’s plan for implementing the Every Student Succeeds Act.

ESSA replaced No Child Left Behind, and every state is required to submit to the U.S. Department of Education its plan for implementing ESSA.

The Oregon Department of Education gathered community input and spent more than a year crafting Oregon’s plan. The State Board of Education had been planning to approve the plan at its meeting March 23. In March, however, the U.S. Department of Education changed the template for states’ ESSA plans. This gave the board an opening to ask ODE to further clarify the language and intent of the plan.

ODE met with education stakeholders to work on five areas:

Alignment with early learning

English learner equity

State report cards

Goals and measures of achievement for student groups

Educator effectiveness

The new document repeatedly emphasizes that Oregon will use an “equity lens” on education issues.

The revised plan heads to Gov. Kate Brown for approval, and then it is expected to be submitted to the U.S. Department of Education by May 3. The U.S. department has 120 days to respond. With approval, Oregon will begin implementing the plan in the fall.

The state board, though, expressed that the plan remains just a framework and that engagement on education issues will continue.

“This is the beginning,” said Salam Noor, deputy superintendent of public instruction. “There is a lot more work to do.”

The state plan can be viewed online, with the most recent alterations highlighted.

Oregon Secretary of State Dennis Richardson, (middle) an ex-officio member of the State Board of Education, attended Thursday’s meeting. Richardson met with U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, and he said the administration is supportive of the Every Student Succeeds Act. (Photo by Jake Arnold, OSBA)